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Topic: Maurice Ward's "Starlite" (Read 8663 times)

I have a head full of a lot of what most would call "useless" information, including the following:

1) What Maurice Ward was making when he "discovered" (not invented) Starlite: Hairspray. This tiny bit of information is seldom, if ever, mentioned this late in the game. The only reason I know is because I read of his discovery very early on.

2) The primary ingredient in hairspray is sugar.

3) Sugar has a wide variety of interesting properties at the molecular level.

4) He wouldn't let the substance out of his sight (if tested in liquid form, it would be recognized immediately)

5) And the most "out of left field" thing that I know and what caused these little bits of information to coagulate came when I "burned" the bacon and remembered that some bacon just will not burn. Upon further investigation, I discovere, you guessed it, some sugar or maple syrup cured bacon will not burn.

I did a little experiment with a hairspray recipe, except that I cooked it too long and made it into actual syrup. I thought I'd have to start over but decided to try it anyway. I coated half a wooden chopstick with the "too thick" syrup. While it was wet, I held a Bic lighter under the end and it blackened immediately, as expected. Then I let the chopstick cure a couple of days (still sticky) and held it over the gas flame of the stove. It didn't burn.

As it was so thick and still sticky, it did dry up and come off but it didn't burn, nor did the wood underneath where it had flaked off.

This was just one tiny experiment. As he discovered it accidentally, I'm guessing he used a wooden spoon (common tool used when cooking with wet sugar) that he failed to clean up, after, and that either got into the flame or that he tried to burn off what would have been a rock solid coating.

I did not stir my syrup with the chopstick. Had I, it would have soaked up the sugar water before it turned to syrup. But, even so, it must have wicked some of the sugar and moisture out of the syrup because the wood beneath the flaked off syrup did not burn, either.

I assume he used plain white sugar, which I didn't have. I used organic (semi-brown) sugar.

I just made a tiny bit, with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and a splash of water, a few drops of lemon juice and a tiny dab (like the size of a pencil eraser) of coconut oil.

I'm not sure if the oil or lemon juice were necessary, but since bacon is so fat and neither the muscle NOR the fat of sugar cured bacon burns and some hairspray recipes have a small amount of oil in them, I decided to add a tiny bit.

For hairspray, the "syrup" is only cooked until it is thoroughly dissolved and in some (CORRECTION: APPARENTLY I MISSED THAT PART, BECAUSE IT IS COOKED TO SYRUP STAGE), the other ingredients are added after the syrup is taken from the flame. Which, IF he was using a food processor, and poured it directly into the processor to mix in the other ingredients, then the spoon would have had nothing but "sugar water" on it.

He later went on to plasticize it which would have been ABSOLUTELY necessary because the substance could, otherwise, simply rinse off. Which he may not have known, initially, which makes me think he may have tried to burn it off a wooden spoon. Because it would have been rock hard and seemed impossible to get off, to one who isn't familiar with sugar. What is as hard as glass can easily be rinsed away with water and even quicker with hot water.

That was another little useless fact I had - homemade leg wax is made with almost the exact same ingredients, and one YouTuber complained that she'd ruined her counter top because it wouldn't come off and had to be informed that all she needed was water.

Anyway, I'm going to try it again, with just sugar and water and leaving the wooden spoon to cure, after.

Also, eggs would be an excellent test because they are porous. Another little factoid in my head is that some producers coat their eggs with a coating that makes them go bad, quickly, because it seals them so they can't "breathe".

Also, you can make plastic with things you probably have in your kitchen, right now. So plasticizing it will be my NEXT, next experiment.

OMG haha, I saw that "starlite" substance on the News when I was still a teenager. I didn't think I'd hear about it again now that I am getting old and grumpy.... too funny. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Free Energy | searching for free energy and discussing free energy

Another interesting factoid is that it takes very little liquid to liquify sugar - as anyone who makes 'no bake cookies" will know as it is 4 parts sugar, 1 part cocoa, 1 part butter and 1 part milk. So that's 5 parts dry ingredients to only 2 parts of liquid and the sugar goes liquid almost immediately.

I had a laugh when I heard that the minion from dow chemical tried to shove a piece down his pants during a visit. I'm shocked that a representative from such a fine, upstanding mega cwhoreporation would stoop to such tactics.

TS

P.S. The germans, Kowsky and Frost were studying the piezo electric effect in rochelle salt crystals when they stumbled onto antigravity. The silica crystals of AeroGel in it's powdered form are also quite insulative.

Free Energy | searching for free energy and discussing free energy

cornstarch may make the syrup dry dryer, quicker. As it does with silicone (oogoo). It may also sort of "plasticize" it...I don't know.

As you may have guessed, I'm more of a thinker than a doer. I bought some plain white sugar last night so I have everything I need to just do it, yet I sit here and think about it. ROFL! I love thinking and collecting and combining little factoids in my head...but "doing? Not so much. Especially cooking...unless there's gonna be brownies or no-bake cookies or something at the end and I don't need anything "fireproofed", at the moment. I can't even think of anything to heat-proof...maybe a wooden solder stand? That would be cool. A wooden solder stand that doesn't burn...

And I wonder if one could "foam" some sugar goo and spray it on their house...like in wild-fire situations. Just the heat from fire nearby would dry it...of course, if they dropped water on it you'd be sunk...and I don't think you'd want to "plasticize" the exterior of your house...of course, if you had a natural, environmentally safe solvent...like maybe citrus solvent...I wonder...

...and now I'm wondering if sugar could increase the heat-resistant properties of silicone...

I had a laugh when I heard that the minion from dow chemical tried to shove a piece down his pants during a visit. I'm shocked that a representative from such a fine, upstanding mega cwhoreporation would stoop to such tactics.

TS

P.S. The germans, Kowsky and Frost were studying the piezo electric effect in rochelle salt crystals when they stumbled onto antigravity. The silica crystals of AeroGel in it's powdered form are also quite insulative.

Ha! Another reason he couldn't let it out of his sight, why he used an egg for his initial demonstration and why he had to plasticize it:

While it takes a hammer and chisel to physically remove it, dry, from a solid surface, if it is on something flexible it simply cracks as it is very brittle - like peanut brittle (for which "hard-crack" syrup is the base) and, of course, with water, it simply dissolves.

I wonder if peanut brittle or hard candy burns? I know peanut brittle has baking soda, corn syrup and a significant amount of butter in it, but hard candy is basically just sugar and water with tiny amounts of color and flavor additives...and they may coat it with something to keep it dry and keep it from sticking together...I don't know. Come to think about it, hard candy has corn syrup in it too...

At the "hard-crack" stage it's a whole different animal but it would be interesting to note if there are any differences, flammability-wise.

If anybody has some hard Christmas candy, put a flame to it and see what happens. I usually have peanut brittle but didn't get any this Christmas...dang it.

You definitely want to be extremely careful because hot syrup is a BITCH! If you burn yourself, wrap it up in a pee-soaked rag. Yes, pee.

Another little factoid: Pee is not "dirty". It's blood plasma, full of nutrients and hormones. It can fix burns, save you from gangrene and just about any illness you can name. It's what allowed you to grow so fast, so healthy, so perfect and so efficiently when your mom was pregnant. In the womb, you were swimming in pee. It's lab name is "plasma ultra-filtrate" and it is the most researched natural substance on the planet due to its healing, hormone and nutrient properties and is an ingredient in many medicines. I doubt anyone here needs to be told why "they" don't want you to know that. If you can cure yourself - which is enragingly easy - medicine would only be needed for physical damage and wouldn't be able to take every cent you have when you get sick.

You could survive for weeks if you drank every drop and months if you also had water. And it wouldn't even have to be especially clean water. Anyone who wants to go completely "off-grid" should know that. Pee is cleaner than the water from your faucet.